Injury Threatens Tornado Tears' Association Cup Place

TRAINER Robert Britton will decide Thursday if his champion chaser Tornado Tears will line-up in Saturday night's Group 1 Association Cup Final (720m) at Wentworth Park.

"I notified the stewards this morning that he's torn his pad – we'll make a call on Thursday whether he starts or not," said a despondent Britton on Monday morning.

Breaking the track record in his heat romp on Saturday night at Wentworth Park – running a mind-boggling 41.38 – the son of Fernando Bale returned home to Victoria on Sunday, only for Britton to uncover the extent of the injury which has put his place in Easter Saturday's Association Cup Final in jeopardy.

"Look at it this way, I've had five or six dogs race up there in Sydney the past six months and four of them have come home with the same injury to the same back left pad, that can't be a coincidence, if that's happened to me it's happening to others as well.

"We'll start treating it today and get him down to the beach in the salt water and just assess how it is later in the week – it's not a muscle or a bone injury it's superficial, so we'll just do what we can and wait and see how it heals.”

Britton, who was on hand at Wentworth Park on Saturday night to watch his multiple group 1 winning chaser go through his paces, said he'll leave a final decision until Thursday.

“I'll put him out in the runs on Thursday and make a call from there but I won't be mucking around with it. All eyes will be on the dog and me so if I'm not 100% with him he won't be going around – that's really all I can say for now.”

Installed a $1.20 favourite with bookmaker Bet365 for the $75,000 to-the-winner distance feature, Tornado Tears' potential omission would throw the race wide open, with early betting declaring just two other runners under double figure odds, litter-sisters Poco Dorado and Veloce Nero.

Poco Dorado – drawn box one for the final – heads into the race as the second fastest qualifier following her second to Tornado Tears in the heats, posting 41.85, almost half-a-second outside the favourite's track record breaking time-standard.

The box draw is: 1. Poco Dorado 2. Little Digger 3. Veloce Nero 4. Book Of Luck 5. Blue Moon Rising 6. Tornado Tears 7. Dyna Chancer 8. Kanzan 9. Bago Bye Bye 10. Boom Down